Teen Titans: Old Habits
by JesseGonzales
Summary: After the Titans have arrived home from months of doing battle with the Brotherhood of Evil, they find that things have changed very much within their city; No more malt shop, no more video store, no more library. However, one thing seems to be very familiar to them-an unknown villain has just waged war against the Teen Titans, and this villain is taking the fight to them.


Old Habits

The buildings of Jump City rumbled in fear of collapse as the ground beneath them quivered. Just a few short blocks away from the extending bridge a battle royal was in the midst. Civilians fled as a power struggle between a white monster and the young heroes of the city intensified.  
"Robin," Starfire called from the smoke-filled sky, "I fear that nothing is working against the creature."  
"Everything we throw at it ends up getting thrown right back," Cyborg shouted just after taking a four by four to the chest, "just four times harder."  
"We need a new plan of attack," Raven said as she appeared from a darkened portal.  
"We need Beast Boy," Robin demanded as the white monster advanced on them.  
Just then, as if it were a miracle, or just good timing, a green-skinned triceratops rammed into the creature sending it flying off into a nearby SUV. The explosion was so massive that it blew out the windows to nearby businesses.  
"You called?" Beast Boy grinned proudly after morphing back into his human self.  
"Where have you been?" Robin's tone was both demanding and aggressive, a clear translation for the silence coming from the others.  
"I thought I saw-"  
"No time now," Robin interrupted him as he then motioned in the direction of the creature.  
It got to its feet in a struggling kind of way. Its body had been morphed to adapt to its surroundings so many times that it was now a different kind of material on each limb. Its eyes were a bright and furious red by this point. It was a formidable opponent for the heroes, but its outnumbered stance had begun to take a clear toll.  
"Titans, go!"  
In a flurry of bright green starbolts, a blasting stream of a blue sonic-blast, and an array of dark energy the white monster had been brought to its knees without trying much to block the attacks. Robin leapt into the action by tying it up with his resistant nylon rope, as a now green bull charged it. The sharpened horns impaled the creature, but instead of any manner of fluid spurting out, an electric shock backfired against the green animal, like a fork being jammed into an electric socket.  
"Beast Boy!" Starfire rushed to his aid. "Friend, please tell me you are undamaged."  
"Ow," he moaned in agony as he sat up; smoke had begun to rise from his spiked hair. Starfire now tried her best to snuff out the flames without causing a need for panic. "What was that thing?" He asked as she then almost knocked his head off with a swift pat.  
The question was on everyone's mind. "There's only one way to find out." Robin announced sternly as he made his way to the electrocuted android. Its eyes had gone gray and dim; its body reverted back to its natural white state and sparks spat out from the puncture wounds that were made in its chest.  
Robin, who was now standing directly over it, used his staff to lift the mask which only revealed circuitry. There was no criminal mastermind, no mentally insane escapee, or any type of mutant rouge; just a robot.  
"Is it no longer a threat?" Starfire asked as she peered over Robin's shoulder.  
"Not anymore, not in this condition," He examined the machine once more before confirming his answer. "Come on, let's go home."

The tower had seemed so big and vast to them. It had been months since they left the Jump City bay in order to take on the Brotherhood of Evil along with their new found alliances. All the life that was once a part of Titans' Tower was non-existent at this point. It loomed over the nearby city beckoning for its inhabitants to return and make the void in its living room whole again with their laughter and stories and voices.  
"Man, oh man," Cyborg inhaled deeply the familiar and inviting scent in the atmosphere, "feels good to be home."  
"Oh yes, I have missed my home and my bed and my Silkie," Starfire chimed in as she began her search for the moth-larvae. "Here Silkie, Silkie," she called out. "Where are you my little bumgorf?"  
"It feels surprisingly," Raven searched her mind for the right words, "good to be back."  
"Good?" Beast Boy mocked. "It feels more than good; it feels great! It feels great to finally be back in my home, in my bed, on my couch watching Super Fantasmo Monkey Crew with a nice tofu sandwich."  
"I don't know about all of that, but I have to admit I did miss this place." Robin said just as Starfire lifted his cape still searching for her lost Silkie.  
"I do not know where Silkie has gone." She cried. "I have searched my room and his favorite place of hiding, the toilet, but I fear that this time he has run away."  
"Silkie can't run," Raven noted.  
Just then the sound of a young girl screaming for dear life rang throughout the tower. All Titans seemed startled by the sudden noise, but prepared themselves just in case an intruder was amongst them.  
"I'm not the only one who heard that, right?" Cyborg asked as his arm transformed into his sonic cannon.  
"Anybody know where it came from?" Robin asked with his staff at the ready.  
"I'm picking up source coming from," Cyborg paused as his readings cleared out, "over there." He pointed a metal finger in the direction of the kitchen area.  
Slowly and cautiously they all crept to the kitchen. "Please, is it some sort of monster Zenthion from the Zenthon galaxy? Its scream sounded most recognizable." Starfire asked.  
Robin motioned for silence as he counted to three and to give the signal for an attack, but just as they were all about to engage whatever hid behind the counter a swift motion of green overcame them. Starfire let out a wail as she then proceeded to blindly fire at her surroundings.  
"No!" Beast Boy screamed as he stood from the pile of Titans he had just taken out.  
"Beast Boy! What is it? What's wrong?" Robin demanded.  
"The, the, the," he stammered.  
"Spit it out!"  
"The... tofu!"  
"What?"  
"Silkie!" Starfire squealed as the overstuffed larva slinked over to her. "Oh how I have missed you so!" She took him into her arms and gave him an overpowering hug.  
"OK, what's going on?" Raven asked.  
"Starfire's worm ate all my tofu!" Beast Boy exclaimed as tears streamed down his face. Silkie then let out a belch of contempt.  
"Dude, you're screaming like a little girl over some meatless meat?" Cyborg teased.  
"For the one thousandth time, it's not meat! It's tofu, a clear difference!"  
"It's still nasty," Cyborg added.  
"Beast Boy," Starfire hovered over to him, "I wish you to forgive Silkie. He did not know it was your tofu, surely. He had no one who could tend to him when we were away doing battle with the Brotherhood."  
Beast Boy took one look at the squirming baby bug whose mouth was still lined with tofu. "Humph."  
Starfire hovered to the other side of him and extended Silkie outwards to him, "Please do not be angry with him." Beast Boy had turned his back on Silkie, but now that he looked at him and remembered when he once shared Starfire's compassion for a Silkie of his own he just could not find it in himself to resist the charm of the little bug.  
"Fine," he groaned, "but don't let that skunk beetle near the remote!"  
"All is forgiven, my little skunk beetle."  
"So what now?" Raven asked.  
"Now we relax!" Cyborg shouted as he plopped on the gray sectional with the remote. "Now we see what's going on with the FasCar racing channel."  
"Oh no! Dude, I wanna watch Super Fantasmo Monkey Crew!" Beast Boy demanded as he jumped onto Cyborg reaching for the remote.  
"Man, ain't nobody wanna watch that Super Fantasma Gorilla Gang."  
"It's Super Fantasmo Monkey Crew, and I said gimme!" Beast Boy shouted while climbing all over the stretching and extending Cyborg.  
"And I said no!"  
"Gimmie!"  
"No!"  
"Give me the remote!"  
Just then the view that looked out over the Jump City bay turned from clear to static as the TV was turned on. The sudden increase in volume caused all the Titans to take cover misleading them to believe this was an attack rather than an accident.  
"Turn it off!" Robin demanded over the way too loud volume.  
"I can't!" Beast Boy cried. "It's not working!"  
And just as quickly as it started, it finished. Instead of static there was a black screen.  
"Now look what you did." Raven glared.  
"Me? I didn't do anything! Cyborg is the one who had the remote!"  
"You probably messed it up trying to take it from me,"  
"I didn't do anything!" Beast Boy insisted.  
"Good afternoon, Titans." A distinct and sultry voice greeted the teenagers from, where they assumed, the TV. They all turned their undivided attention to the black screen. "You don't know who I am now, but you will, and when that time comes you'll wish the Brotherhood finished you off."  
"Um, did I miss something?" Raven asked aloud, rhetorically of course.  
"Who are you?" Robin bulked up.  
"You don't know me, as I have said, but you'll soon find out."  
"Find out what?" Robin growled.  
"That I am your worst nightmare come to life." The voice in the void answered. "But I must admit, Titans," the word came out as if it were soaked in disdain, "you took out my android much quicker and efficiently than expected. It was a real treat to see."  
"You! You sent the android!" Robin repeated.  
"You catch on quickly," The voice said with clear sarcasm.  
"Who are you?" He demanded.  
"All in good time, dear Robin, all in good time..." The TV then reverted back to a clear screen.  
"Talk about crime never takes a break." Beast Boy sighed as he flopped onto the couch.  
"Cyborg, can you lock on a transmission signal?" Robin asked.  
"I can try,"  
"Do you not think it was Slade?" Starfire asked while cradling Silkie. "After all it would not be the first time he has tried to exterminate us with such intricate machinery as the android."  
"She's right," Raven added. "It could just be another one of his games."  
"No." Robin said with absolution. "I could tell that wasn't Slade."  
"Are you certain?"  
"Sure of it. There are a lot of similarities, but in the end there's only one Slade, and that wasn't him."  
"I can't get a read, Robin." Cyborg said. "The static from earlier was a disruption signal. Whoever it was knew what they were doing, and when to do it."  
"Figures."  
"Come on dudes," Beast Boy jumped up from the couch. "We just defeated an entire brotherhood of villains, made it back home safely, established communications with other titans all over the universe, and just took out some hi-tech robot. If there's anything to be sure of it's that we're the Teen Titans, and there's nothing we can't handle!"  
The extremity of Beast Boys' speech was powerful enough to even move through stone seeing as it was powerful enough to blow the roof off of the tower, literally.  
"Nice going," Raven patronized as she emerged from a dark force field.  
"I do not think that was Beast Boy," Starfire stipulated. "Look." She pointed to a gaping hole in their ceiling.  
There appeared to be figures moving around through the smokescreen.  
"Titans, get ready." Robin instructed.  
Once the smoke cleared the team was able to see that nothing was there. All that appeared through the hole was a blue sky and a clear day, nothing out of the ordinary, except for the hole itself that is.  
"Okay," Cyborg said as he lowered his sonic cannon. "What are we getting ready for?"  
"Perhaps it was an accident?"  
"No, that hole is too perfect to be an accident." Robin concluded.  
"It looks like an ordinary cave-in to me," Raven insinuated.  
"Yeah, I mean we have been gone for a while. Maybe the structure jus-" Cyborg was caught off guard mid-sentence as a glowing pair of red eyes sucked him into the floor.  
"Cyborg!" Beast Boy screeched!  
"Where did he-" Raven began, but she too was taken away and sucked into a wall.  
"Our friends! Where have they been taken?" Starfire's tone was shaken and very scared.  
"I don't know, but we need to stick together and find out what's going on here." Robin said.  
"Agreed."  
"You coming, Beast Boy?" Robin asked. "Beast Boy?" Both Robin and Starfire turned their attention to where Beast Boy once stood only to see him being dragged away into another one of the walls.  
"Beast Boy!" Robin shouted as he made a dash for his teammate, but he was not fast enough. "No!" He pounded the wall with his fist.  
"What are we to do, Robin? Our friends have been stolen by our home!"  
"Not by the tower, but I have an idea of what's going on."  
"What is it?"  
"Do you remember the android we fought downtown? And how it could change its body to match any material and blend in?"  
"I do."  
"I'm thinking that hole was made by a few more of them, and they were able to blend in with the tower allowing us to not catch them." He said examining the hole. "The real question is who's the mastermind behind this whole thing, and what do they want with us." He paused contemplating any suspects. "It all leads to Slade, but I'm still not positive. What about you, Starfire? Any ideas?" Silence. "Starfire?"  
He turned to where she last was, but there was no one there anymore. It seemed as he was the only one in the room, for all he knew, in the whole tower.  
"Starfire?" No answer. "How is this possible?" He questioned as, unbeknownst to him, another pair of glowing red eyes appeared from behind. "Whoever it is must have eyes on the-" With a quickness the android pounced on Robin and, using its materializing abilities, drove them both into the floor, disappearing.  
Darkness surrounded them as they drifted into the literal interior of Titans' Tower. It felt as if his body was turned to mush and they were just slipping on through the cracks. His head began to spin and his vision blurred, and what seemed like hours was over within seconds. He felt his back stiffen with pain as he collided with the barbells in the weight room. He quickly rebounded and did a backflip, landing on his feet. The sting from the impact with the very heavy weights caused him to take a knee in pain.  
"I don't know who put you together, but I'm gonna enjoy taking you apart." He smirked as his fighting staff extended to its full form. The two then engaged each other in combat. Fighting one of the robots as a team was difficult, so of course Robin knew he'd be in for a good battle. These robots were built to adapt and to use their surroundings to their advantage, and the only way Robin knew he could take it out was to force it to adapt so many times that it would eventually become so stretched out and would then be vulnerable.  
Meanwhile down in the basement of the tower, Raven was busy occupying her own changeling monster. She zipped past columns of steel trying to lose the robot, but its ability to travel along the material it adapted to made running almost impossible. With a swift jab at her leg the monster sent Raven tumbling to the ground with a thud.  
"Alright, you asked for it." She snarled as she looked around. "I may not be able to see you like this, but I can always see in the dark." She closed her eyes and began to focus on her surroundings, particularly the monster that was well hidden. And there it was; just as it was prepared to lunge her telepathic powers caught it mid-air. "Taking you apart should be easy enough." She glared under the hood of her cape. "Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" Her powers encased the monster in a dark field and with a flick of her wrist tore it apart at the limbs. "Thought so," She then finished the job by opening a portal and tossing the remains through it into, what looked like, outer space.  
Cyborg and Starfire had met up while battling their own monsters. Even with two titans, however, the monsters were still agile and lethal. Cyborg's monster was able to wrap a seeming tentacle around him and shock him through his circuits. Then with very little to no trouble it tossed him across the room causing him to slam into a oncoming Starfire. The both of them hit the ground hard and with a thud, but hitting them harder just made the titans that much angrier. They knew they had to end this, and fast, so they unleashed their powers onto the creatures. Starbolt after starbolt and a very powerful sonic-blast blitzed the monsters. It appeared that Starfire and Cyborg had defeated them, but that was clearly not the case.  
"I must admit," Starfire started after seeing it rise back up, "they are most persistent and determined to defeat us."  
"Or they're just too stubborn for their own good." Cyborg suggested as he stuck his hand into the monster. "Booyah!" He smirked as his sonic cannon blew it to pieces.  
Starfire then did the same, but instead of blowing it to smithereens she tore it apart with her bare hands.  
"That works,"  
"AHHH!" Beast Boy ran past the two titans with his monster in-step.  
Cyborg had prepared his sonic cannon, but just a few meters away a dark, bird-like claw grabbed it from the ground and crushed it to pieces. Raven then appeared from the ground surrounded by its remains.  
"Guess that works too,"  
"Dude, who are these guys?"  
"They're not guys, they're things." Raven corrected.  
"Whatever! The point is that they're attacking us for no reason."  
"Is it not a plot created by the Brotherhood of Evil?"  
"It couldn't be," he said with much certainty, "they should still all be frozen in that underground lab in Paris, every last one of 'em."  
"Whoever it is has a lot of connections to pull off an attack like this with robots like these." Raven observed.  
"Where is Robin?" Starfire asked.  
Just then the wall to their right burst open as another android crashed through. There were numerous puncture wounds across its body and one directly between its dimmed eyes, the shot that likely ended it. Robin emerged from the smoke and rubble.  
"Robin!" Starfire gleamed. "I trust that you are undamaged?"  
"I'm fine-can't say the same for the weight room though."  
"Any idea who would send these things to attack us?" Cyborg asked as they all walked back into the living room.  
"None," Starfire said. "All of the villains we have done battle with are frozen or in jail."  
"It has to be someone new," Raven started. "The video they sent us said we didn't know them, not yet anyway."  
"But why now? Why did they not engage us in battle with the Brotherhood?"  
"Because now they have our full attention." Robin added. "Whoever it is has striking similarities to Slade. My guess is that they want us to only focus on them, just like he would've wanted."  
"So whoever it is must be a copycat Slade?" Beast Boy concluded.  
"Not necessarily," Robin said, "but they're pretty darn close." He held up the mask from the android that he fought. "I'll start analysis on it right away." He said as he began to walk away.  
"Robin?" Starfire called to him. "Won't you celebrate with us the defeating of the evil brotherhood and of the androids?"  
"No. I need to figure out who it was that sent these things; we need to better prepare ourselves for whatever might come next." He concluded as he walked away.  
"Here we go again," Raven muttered.  
"Where are we going?" Starfire asked without looking away from the direction Robin left in.  
"She means that this little thing is gonna become Robin's new obsession, just like it was when it was actually Slade behind the voice." Cyborg added.  
"We shouldn't worry about it, he'll come out of it soon enough." Raven reassured. "Robin deals with these things better on his own."  
"Will we be celebrating our victories?" Starfire turned to her other teammates.  
"I think we should, we actually deserve it." Raven said with a less-than-enthusiastic tone.  
"Booyah!" Cyborg boomed. "You know what that means, BB!" The unusually cheerful and eccentric young titan was nowhere to be heard. "Beast Boy?" They all turned to see him staring out over the harbor as the sun began to set. "Yo, Beast Boy, you OK?"  
"Friend," Starfire floated to him, "will you not celebrate with us?"  
"I'm not in the mood," he put his head down.  
They all seemed taken aback by this.  
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and just say that you're not OK." Raven said.  
"When we were out there fighting that robot in the city, I thought I saw..." The words alone seemed as though they were physically painful for him to say.  
"Saw who?" Starfire encouraged.  
"Terra,"  
The others fell silent for a while. "Beast Boy," Raven started, "that isn't-"  
"Possible? I know." He finished. "But when I went to see her statue it was gone."  
"That's impossible," Cyborg looked to Raven. "There was no way to reverse the effects, not yet anyway."  
"I know," he looked back out over the glistening water that danced under a sky littered with pinks and purples and oranges. "She didn't even know who I was; she didn't remember me."  
"Maybe this Terra was not our Terra," Starfire said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.  
"It doesn't matter anymore," he shrugged it off, "she's moving on and we should too."  
"Trying to forget that someone never existed isn't moving on," Raven said.  
"It's a start,"

_I am your worst nightmare come to life_. The words lingered in the air around him like a swarm of houseflies buzzing. He racked his brain of which villain could possibly be behind this. All of his guesses came up empty as most of their villain were either frozen with the Brotherhood or in jail or not powerful, nor resourceful, enough to pull off such an elaborate plan. The fact that there were so many trails leading to a Slade attack made Robin think more about it. Whoever this person was then they were out for the Titans, and with the assault against them today it made him even more apprehensive. He wanted to make sure that everyone was prepared for whatever was going to be thrown at them.


End file.
